III. IMPATIENCE AND REPROOF. YES, I have felt a weariness of soul, IV. REFORMERS. IF ye have not the one great lesson learned, Which grows in leaves, tides in the mighty sea, And in the stars eternally hath burned, That only full obedience is free, If ye in pride your true birthright have spurned, Or, for a mess of pottage, beggarly Have sold it, how, in Truth's name, have ye earned Be free, and then our God will give a sword There shall be power in your lightest word Writhe, dying of her own most foul disease, Within her churches and her palaces! V. THE FIERY TRIAL. THE hungry flame hath never yet been hot To bear, not longing for a prouder lot, Those martyrdoms whereof the world knows not,Hope sneaped with frosty scorn, the faith of youth Wasted in seeming vain defence of Truth, Greatness o'ertopped with baseness, and fame got Too late: Yet this most bitter task was meant For those right worthy in such cause to plead, If they may tread the path where Jesus went, VI. GREAT Truths are portions of the soul of man; Each drop of blood, that e'er through true heart ran With lofty message, ran for thee and me; Hath been, and still forevermore must be, Slave is no word of deathless lineage sprung, Too many noble souls have thought and died, And our good Saxon, from lips purified With martyr-fire, throughout the world hath rung Too long to have God's holy cause denied. VII. I ASK not for those thoughts, that sudden leap With whose great rise the ocean all is shaken Give me that growth which some perchance deem sleep, Which, by the toil of gathering energies, Until, by Heaven's sweetest influences, Slowly and slowly spreads a speck of green Into a pleasant island in the seas, Where, mid tall palms, the cane-roofed home is seen, And wearied men shall sit at sunset's hour, Hearing the leaves and loving God's dear power. |